<html>

<head>

    <title>Help On LaTeX Commands</title>

    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" title="Help with LaTeX" href="latex.css">

</head>

<body>


<h2>LaTex Commands</h2>


<p>Commands take one of two forms:</p>


<ul>

    <li>a backslash (<tt>\</tt>) followed by a single special character</li>

    <li>a backslash (<tt>\</tt>) followed by a string of letters</li>

</ul>


<p>The second case is case-sensitive;

    <tt><a href="ltx-405.html">\Gamma</a></tt> is different from

    <tt><a href="ltx-405.html">\gamma</a></tt>.

    These commands are terminated by a nonletter, i.e., a blank, a number,

    a punctuation mark or special character.</p>


<p>For commands which produce text a trailing blank is interpreted as the

    end of the command, which does not automatically create a space, so

    you may have to do something to create an

    <a href="ltx-431.html">interword space</a> after this text.</p>


<p>Commands may have mandatory arguments, which are input in

    braces (<tt>{}</tt>). They may also have optional arguments,

    which are input in square brackets (<tt>[]</tt>).</p>


<h3>Defining new commands, etc.</h3>


<p>See:</p>


<ul>

    <li><tt><a href="ltx-18.html">\newcommand</a></tt></li>

    <li><tt><a href="ltx-19.html">\newenvironment</a></tt></li>

    <li><tt><a href="ltx-20.html">\newtheorem</a></tt></li>

    <li><tt><a href="ltx-21.html">\newfont</a></tt></li>

</ul>


<p>These must be used for entities which are not already defined. To

    redefine something use, for example,

    <tt><a href="ltx-18.html">\renewcommand</a></tt>.</p>


<hr noshade="noshade" size="1">


<p>

</body>
</html>